kitchen sink pt.2

Do you love mussels? Flavourful but quick dish that you can make and impress ina hurry? (Think less than 30 minutes from start to finish).

Today, I was at the Victoria Market doing a spot of fresh produce shopping, walking around, the mussels looks great beside the rest of the frozen mollusc (they are also the only one thats ALIVE). I weaved my way through the stores and looked and compare the mussels, cleanliness and also the price. In the end, they are all about the same, so I bought a Kilogram worth (at $5.00 aud) from the one that looks like the most clean.

The thing with mussels is that, as with any other seafood, it is important not to overcook it. How many times have I ate rubbery deep fried mussels from the fish & chips shop? Its so bad, but for some reason, I seem to have amnesia, because I kept eating them. LOL

Anyway, it is important to clean the beards from the mussels and scrub them clean because if you don’t, you might catch some nasty food bug.

A tip: you can use a mussel to clean another mussel. Just use the flat bill part of the mussel and scrape the beard off the other mussels.

Ok, proceed to my quick and easy to impressed meal.

Ingredients:

Mussels (obviously I have a kg)

Fresh basil (just pluck a few leaves and roughly torn them)

Flat leaf parsley (roughly chopped a handful)

2 ripe tomatoes (roughly chop)

Bacon trimmings

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1/3 onion, chopped

A handful of button mushroom, quartered

Red capsicum, small dice

Half a zucchini, small dice

Seasoning: (note all cups measurement are in Australian standard cups)

Ketchup ( 1 tablespoon)

White wine (1 1/2 – 2 cup). I used a dry white chardonnay. If you do not have white wine, you can use beer. I prefer Lager.

Fish stock or vegetable stock or Chicken stock (1/2 cup)

1 piece bayleaf

Few sprig of fresh thyme

1 tsp curry powder (yes, I swear it is good)

Pinch of sweet paprika

Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

Pinch of coriander powder (optional)

Salt to taste

Sugar to taste

METHODS:

Heat up about 2 tbsp of oil in a high pot, I like a non intrusive flavour oil like canola. I only uses olive oil for dressing salads or finishing up a meal or a few drizzle before serving, never use it to cook because I do not like how it low it’s flash point is and how it likes to rob mild flavoured food of flavours.

Fry the bacon trimmings briefly until slightly golden brown.

Toss in onion and garlic. Saute onion and garlic together for a few quick minute, until you can smell the fragrance and onion is slightly translucent

Add in all the herbs, zucchini, capsicum and mushroom. Give it a quick stir fry.

Toss in the tomatoes and season with the spice. Give it a good fry until you can see the ingredients is a semi mush.

Now, add in your cleaned mussels and with the heat on high, deglaze with the white wine, give a quick stir to coat evenly, and pour in your stock. (you can add extra stock, if you like the juice with the mussels, which I did)

Mix in 1 tbsp of the ketchup and season with sugar. Cover the pot with a lid and on high heat, cook the mussel for 5-6 minutes, giving it a few shakes to cook them all evenly.

Season with salt and discard unopened mussels.

Serve with crusty bread and a slice of lemon.

If it ain’t good, I would not recommend it. 3 of us each ate 2 bowl. :D